| Hello, *|NOME|* One of the objectives of IMDS is to produce research on topics related to social mobility. In addition to the work developed within the institute with associated researchers, in 2023 we inaugurated two new support modalities, which are worth talking about in this space. The first type of support consists of scholarships to assist master's or doctoral dissertations in economics. We started this year to offer scholarships for the period of up to 18 months for students of the post (master's or doctorate) in Economics, who are interested in developing research in the area of activity of the IMDS. The candidate needs to meet the following prerequisites: a) be enrolled in or have already completed the master's or doctoral degree in Economics in an IMDS partner economics department; b) have completed the compulsory subjects; c) have a research project approved by the respective advisor; d) develop research in thematic areas of potential impact on social mobility, such as housing; urbanization of the poor; violence prevention; social assistance and the fight against poverty; conditional or unconditional transfers of income; cognitive and social-emotional training of children and young people; basic and higher education; productive inclusion, work and employment; health and adolescent care; and support for pregnancy and early childhood. The selected projects will have their developments monitored by the institute, and the executor (master's or doctoral student) must send a report and meet with us monthly. In order for our suggestions for direction to be aligned with the academic project, such meetings will always be in the presence of the professor-advisor. The second type of support is directed at young researchers whose doctoral degree has been obtained for a maximum of 10 years. In this case, IMDS executes the project in partnership with the researcher. The approved project is accompanied by a joint execution schedule with the institute's team of technicians. Also in this case, the scholarship is paid in return for sending a monthly technical report and meeting for discussion. However, here availability is required for meetings with the IMDS team as often as necessary for the execution of the activities foreseen in the project. The same discipline of sending monthly reports of the previous modality is implemented, but team meetings can have weekly frequency, depending on the phase of the project. The experiences have been very fruitful, and it is worth talking a little about the research projects being implemented by researchers from USP's economics department, one in each modality. In the thesis modality, the master's student Julia Queiroz, supervised by Professor Solange Gonçalves, analyzes the effect of unemployment shocks suffered by fathers and/or mothers on the labor supply of children. An effort is made to identify possible heterogeneity of responses, by sex and by family composition (single-parent or two-parent). Júlia and Solange take advantage of the panel feature of the PNAD Contínua to estimate short-term impacts of unemployment shocks. The interest of the IMDS in the subject is motivated by a broader question: is it possible to design a social security policy aimed especially at the poorest, which implies low volatility of per capita family consumption even in the presence of high variance of household income? Understanding how parental income shocks affect investment in human capital and children's well-being helps to scale their intergenerational impact and is a first step toward a cost-benefit analysis of a social security policy focusing on the poorest. In the modality of support for young researchers, we are supporting Professor Raphael Corbi in a project carried out in partnership with two researchers from the institute, Flávio Riva and Matheus Leal, whose objective is a long-term impact assessment of the federal Young Apprentice program. This program offers training for young people between 14 and 24 years of age, combining professional qualification courses with practical activities within companies, which receive subsidies for the hiring of young people. Our interest is to identify mechanisms of productive insertion that have better cost-benefit. Understanding whether young people hired as apprentices are more likely to be employed or to receive higher wages 15 years later, and exploring heterogeneities of the impact of the policy is relevant in improving the design of vocational pedagogies. These modalities, at this initial moment, are franchised to some selected economics departments: USP – São Paulo, PUC-Rio and UFRJ. For 2024, IMDS will extend the invitation to other selected partners, possibly exploring economic centers in the South and Northeast regions of Brazil, as well as other centers in the Southeast.
Until the next “Letter from IMDS”! Paulo Tafner CEO | 
